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Long valley lifetime of dark excitons in single-layer WSe2

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

Y. Tang
K.F. Mak
J. Shan

Abstract

Single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides provide a promising material system to explore the electron’s valley degree of freedom as a quantum information carrier. The valley degree of freedom can be directly accessed by means of optical excitation. However, rapid valley relaxation of optically excited electron-hole pairs (excitons) through the exchange interaction has been a major roadblock. Theoretically such valley relaxation is suppressed in dark excitons, suggesting a potential route for long valley lifetimes. Here we develop a waveguide-based method to detect time-resolved and energy-resolved dark exciton emission in single-layer WSe2, which involves spin-forbidden optical transitions with an out-of-plane dipole moment. The valley degree of freedom of dark excitons is accessed through the valley-dependent Zeeman effect under an out-of-plane magnetic field. We find a short valley lifetime for the dark neutral exciton, likely due to the short-range electron-hole exchange, but long valley lifetimes exceeding several nanoseconds for the dark charged excitons. © 2019, The Author(s).

Date Published

Journal

Nature Communications

Volume

10

Issue

1

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85071781321&doi=10.1038%2fs41467-019-12129-1&partnerID=40&md5=8f451feaa4d0cd1f46b35c2cded17982

DOI

10.1038/s41467-019-12129-1

Group (Lab)

Jie Shan Group
Kin Fai Mak Group

Funding Source

DE-SC0019481
-SC0019481
DESC0013883

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